After nearly a decade in development at Universal Pictures, Shane Black‘s Cold Warrior has found a new home at Netflix, Collider has exclusively learned. While Netflix quietly acquired the project late last year, the news was never reported. It now comes less than two weeks before The Predator hits theaters, following its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Originally written by Chuck Mondry, the script follows a retired Cold War-era spy who teams with a younger agent to track down a terrorist. It’s unclear whether Black has taken a crack at the screenplay in the intervening years, but it seems reasonable to assume he did a pass on the script, given his affinity for this kind of material. It also remains to be seen whether Cold Warrior will be Black’s next film, as it’s simply a development title at Netflix — though the streaming service tends to move faster than most studios. In any case, the idea of Netflix rescuing a Shane Black movie from development hell and giving him creative freedom to make the movie can only be considered a good thing.

Image via Warner Bros.

Michelle Manning and Anthony Bagarozzi are producing Cold Warrior with Black’s manager, David Greenblatt. Manning recently served as an executive producer on Netflix’s Motley Crue biopic The Dirt, so she has a prior relationship with the streaming service. Bagarozzi, who previously teamed with Mondry to co-write the action-thriller spec Tick-Tock, which sold to Sony for $1 million dollars back in 2000.

Black previously directed The Nice Guys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Marvel’s Iron Man 3, which grossed $1.2 billion. However, to action junkies, he’s best known for writing the first three Lethal Weapon movies. Black’s other writing credits include the ’90s action movies The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight. The Predator represents a homecoming of sorts for Black, who played Hawkins in the original 1987 action classic. He’s represented by WME and attorney Alan Hergott.

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